Published 1:40 pm, Sunday, April 17, 2016

FLORENCE, Ala. — Alabama authorities say a police officer has been shot and the suspect has died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

Florence Police Sgt. Brad Holmes tells The Associated Press the officer was shot in the face just after midnight Sunday at Cox Creek Parkway and Cloverdale Road. Holmes says no motive was immediately available.

Holmes says the white officer was approached by the male suspect, who is also white, at an intersection before the suspect fired shots at the officer. No other details were provided.

Holmes says the officer is in stable condition and in “good spirits” at Huntsville Hospital. Holmes says the officer is expected to be released from hospital later on Sunday.

Police are withholding the names of the officer and suspect, pending family notification.

A bust hits the Oil Patch as rest of nation enjoys cheap gas

HOUMA, La.— It might sound strange, but the penny-pinching folks in Louisiana’s Oil Patch can’t wait for the price of gasoline to go back up.

Cheap gas at the pump — though a welcome cash infusion for millions of American households — is a way of saying “recession” in south Louisiana, where oil wells are as common as shrimp nets and alligators.

Since 2014, Louisiana has lost about 12,000 oil and gas jobs as prices have declined, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission. Nationwide, about 100,000 jobs related to the oil and gas industry have been lost since January 2015, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

Many are left wondering when prices will rise again.

“Yesterday, I paid $1.87 for gas,” Patti Lafont said, shaking her head while waiting on tables at a restaurant in Houma, deep in the Oil Patch. “I would rather pay any day $3.87 per gallon because, over here, that’s what we live on: fishing and the oilfield.”

Houma is a city of 34,000 people in the steamy Cajun swamps southwest of New Orleans. It’s transformed itself from the sleepy farming and fishing town it was in the ’50s into a bustling hub serving the needs of oil drillers in the field, whether extracting oil on land or far out in the Gulf of Mexico.

We all lie, scientists say, but politicians even more so

WASHINGTON — This is the season of lies.

We watch with fascination as candidates for the world’s most powerful job trade falsehoods and allegations of dishonesty.

News organizations such as The Associated Press and PolitiFact dedicate enormous resources to separating candidates’ truthful wheat from their dishonest chaff.

But if we’ve come to expect and even joke about office-seekers who seem truth averse (“How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving“), many of us have given little thought to our own fibs and to how they compare with politicians’ deceits. What if PolitiFact looked at what we say to our spouses, friends and bosses?

Poll: Getting facts right key to Americans’ trust in media

WASHINGTON — Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans’ skepticism about what they read on social media.

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents.

But trust today also goes beyond the traditional journalistic principles of accuracy, balance and fairness.

Faced with ever-increasing sources of information, Americans also are more likely to rely on news that is up-to-date, concise and cites expert sources or documents, according to a study by the Media Insight Project, a partnership of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute.

They want to be able to navigate the news app or website easily and quickly, without having to wade through intrusive or annoying ads.

Trial begins for ex-reserve who fatally shot unarmed man

TULSA, Okla.— Lawyers for an Oklahoma reserve sheriff’s deputy who killed an unarmed suspect lying face-down on the ground and being restrained are expected to argue that the victim’s drug use and health could have contributed to his death.

Robert Bates, a 74-year-old insurance executive who moonlighted as a reserve Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy in his spare time, is due to stand trial Monday on a second-degree manslaughter charge in the shooting death of Eric Harris, who was killed after running from deputies during an illegal gun sales sting last April. Video of the killing was captured on deputies’ body cameras and can be viewed online.

After deputies caught up to Harris and were restraining him on the ground, Bates can be heard yelling “Taser!” before firing a single gunshot that struck Harris near his armpit, killing him. Bates later said he thought he was drawing his stun gun instead of his handgun.

If convicted of second-degree manslaughter, Bates could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

Health official: Zika not worry now for pregnant women in US

WASHINGTON — A top public health official says there’s been no local transmission of the Zika virus in the United States, so any talk about women in the country delaying pregnancy “is not even an issue for discussion at this point.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health also says it’s “very likely” the U.S. could see “local transmitted cases as we get into the robust mosquito season” this summer.

He says if there’s a “local outbreak,” it’s up to health officials to work to contain it.

For now, he says, women in the U.S. who are getting pregnant “should not be worried about anything regarding pregnancy” — but steer clear of countries where there are outbreaks.